Amazon Plants! A List!

An Alien Universe of Plants

This list of Amazon plants is, of course, not exhaustive. The part of the Amazon forest where our cruises explore has one of the most diverse collections of plant life on earth - in some areas there are over 600 kinds of trees in a single hectare (2. 5 acres)! The list does have many of the plants that we are likely to see on one of our cruises.

When most of us arrive in the Amazon for the first time we cannot avoid having a preference for mammals (especially monkeys). But over time all of us develop a fascination with the bizarre plant life found in this extraordinary place.

There are trees that walk, plants that aggressively poison neighboring competing plants, trees that produce food and shelter for ant colonies, seeds that shoot into the air like rockets, seeds that are waiting to be carried off into the forest by agoutis, and flowers some that bloom only once per year, at night, and are pollinated by bats. There are countless thousands of strange stories of plant adaptations. The Amazon is truly and alien universe of plants!